Lagging indicators of mch care among urban poor in achieving sdg for India

Background: India, a very first time recorded absolute increase in the urban population which may outpaced the ability of government to provide a basic civic amenities and primary health care to a large section of the urban poor. 
Objectives: Paper tried to estimate the coverage gap in maternal and child health related indicators in order to prioritize key indicators in achieving sustainable development goals particularly among urban poor. 
Data and Methods: Using the third round of DLHS, this study critically analyzed the coverage gap in selected indicators of maternal and child healthcare among the urban poor. Principal component analysis was used to create a wealth index. Logistic regression was performed to analyze the factors associated with coverage gap in urban India.
Results: Family planning methods, antenatal care and oral rehydration therapy comes out to be lagging indicators and need to prioritize while working with urban poor. The situation is even worse in the low HDI States. Summary measure for MCH indicators highlighted higher coverage gap among low HDI States particularly in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. Level of education, number of children born to a woman and husband education found to be major covariates that inversely correlated with the coverage gap for the selected healthcare indicators. 
Conclusion: The coverage gap needs to be narrowed down urgently with stringent policies and programs to make significant progress on maternal and child health in urban areas. This development is critical to achieve the recently conceived Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).